3 STAR REVIEW: THE BACHELOR DUKE by Cecilia Rene

The Bachelor Series: Book 1
Release Date: July 25, 2020

The Bachelor Duke meets a beautiful, curvaceous lady.

Remington Warren, The Duke of Karrington, lives his life by the name society has thrust upon him. Having witnessed cruelty against the fairer sex with his own eyes, he vows never to marry to prevent himself from becoming like the monster who raised him. After ten years of being The Bachelor Duke, his life is irrevocably changed when he sees Lady Olivia St. John across the ballroom floor.

Having lived a sheltered, pampered life, surrounded by her loving family, Lady Olivia St. John longs to know passion and love. She is beautiful, bold, and has a rather large dowry. According to society, she would be a diamond in the first water of this season if it wasn’t for her one flaw.

Will she find all she longs for and more in the arms of The Bachelor Duke, or will heartbreak be her demise?

The synopsis alone had me agreeing to read and review this book, as a woman with more curves than most and as there are so few historical romances that cast a more curvaceous female into the heroine role. For that bravery alone, I have to give Ms. Rene major kudos.

There are a lot of things about Olivia and Remmington’s story that I truly loved and the fact that I read it straight through without stopping was enough to earn it a strong 3 Star rating.

The chemistry between the H and H was electric from first glance and their interactions—during what can only be described as a whirlwind courtship—were both sweet and sexy.

That being said, as I finished reading Olivia and Remmington’s story I couldn’t help but have strongly mixed feelings about how the last several chapters played out and struggled a bit when it came time to write this review because of it.

I honestly had no issues with the core story at all, outside of the fact that cousins (who admit to being more like sisters) repeatedly referred to each other as Lady Olivia and Lady Julia instead of just using their given names as families would do, cousin Julia behaving like a spoiled brat more often than not and everyone-including her own family, having no problem reminding Olivia constantly that she is “Plump”.

It is from around the 80% mark and on that I began scratching my head.

Not every story needs a last-minute conflict to nearly tear the couple apart or a dastardly scheme to bring them back together again. While I understand that bits and pieces of how this played out might have been necessary to set the stage for the next book in the series, it just kind of felt as though a square peg was being forced into a round hole.

Overall, it is still a story very much worth reading, quirks and all.